Contemporary selective call receiver communication systems employ messaging schemes that can deliver voice, numeric, or alphanumeric messages to its user. The majority of selective call systems transmit address and message information using a protocol such as GSC (Motorola's Golay Sequential Code) or POCSAG (Great Britain's Post Office Code Standardisation Advisory Group). To originate a message or page, a base station (or selective call terminal) is typically accessed via a Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) from a telephone. As a voice message entry device, the telephone is acceptable but when data needs to be entered, an alternative means of entry is desirable. Alternative entry devices such as computer terminals or custom entry devices work well if the originator can convey information to the user in a textual format. Unfortunately, when a user must convey a large amount of information or graphic-type information, existing selective call messaging (paging) systems and data transport protocols do not gracefully allow for the transmission of either long textual messages or messages containing graphical data. This is because selective call receivers are powered by limited energy content battery supplies that are quickly degraded when receiving and displaying long messages. In addition, because of the miniature size of the selective call receiver and its display, the information received is not easily readable and accessible to the user.
While contemporary facsimile communication equipment employ data compression techniques in their coding formats, such data compression techniques are inadequate for adequately preserving the battery lives of the selective call receivers. Furthermore, the long data messages indicative of facsimile communication would also destroy the battery saving schemes currently being employed with selective call communication systems. Therefore, because in facsimile communications long textual or graphical information are transmitted to the selective call receivers, the selective call receivers' battery lives are severely degraded. This makes facsimile communication unattractive to the users of selective call receivers even though the need exists.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus, in a selective call communication system, for providing facsimile communication that is designed specifically to meet these constraints, namely, a significant reduction in the number of bits required to transmit the information over-the-air while minimizing the inconvenience of the users by making the information suitable for display on a miniature display screen.